A $447 Million Consumer Alert

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau pays 60% of its 958 employees more than $100,000. But Congress can't really tell how else the agency's money is spent.

By

Randy Neugebauer

Sept. 19, 2012 6:57 p.m. ET

Should an unelected Washington bureaucrat be given tremendous power to lead a new federal agency, set its budget and spend more than $550 million with no oversight or disapproval? The Dodd-Frank Act signed into law by President Obama two years ago established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, whose director has precisely those vast powers. The bureau to date has avoided giving direct answers to congressional inquiries about how it is spending money.